can any one please help with the standard manual setting to take Koi pictures with a Canon EOS 50D. standard 17 to 85 lens, or info on similar Canon. I also own the speedlite 430exII flashlite

Why would you want to get to MANUAL SETTINGS.

The 50D and 17-85 is good kit. I am going to assume that you are after the best quality shots for your fish. In shooting koi your first and almost always present problem is water.

After a few experiments I have found that the best way for me to get nice shots ... and that is is with a 40D and 100-400 lens is ... Set the camera on the SPORTS SETTING and then follow the fish around the pond.

The Post Processing goes a long way in bringing the best out. Be careful of flash because 9/10 times you may get more burnout reflection than any good fish.

Go down on your belly next to that window ... put the lens flat against the glass and shoot. The AI in the camera will try and stay focused on the fish as they move around and do shoot in short bursts. You are bound to get some great shots.

Have fun.

Thanks I will try that out.
I am more looking at shooting Koi in a bowl and want to limit the glare.
I will look at the 100-400 lens for pond pictures, thanks Colyn

Ok now I understand a bit better ... you want to do the shots catalog style.

Well then you must be careful with that 17-85 lens.Make sure you are zoomed in beyond the 55mm mark. Due to the wide angle of the 17mm side of the lens you have the issue that the lens do distort on the outer edges and it could stretch your fis and worse ... it can make it look disproportioned.

Setting your camera to the Portrait settings and pushing the ISo to 400 would most probably render a good shot.

If you want to go full manual then 400 ISO ... F5.6 should be where you will get a good shot. The Shutterspeed would depend on the light.

Wayne posted this elsewhere on this forum ...

Quote :

Please read the whole thing...solution at end.

I tried to photograph a koi of mine today and although i believe i had a good quality camera it was a real mission as i did not know what settings to use. I have a Nikon D3000 and was using a 18-55mm AF-S VR Lens.

I first tried the camera on automatic with a polorizing lens. - That did not work.

I then removed the polorising lens and it got a little bit better but the camera was to slow for the fast moving fish.

I then tried sports mode but that did not work at all.

All the photos upto now was either to blurry or to dark.

I then finally called servaas de kock. He has a nikon D70 and he quickly helped me. After following his setting and suggestions almost every picture i took after that was perfect.

Here are the settings:

1. Turn the mode dial to S - thats Shutter priority.
2. Your shutter speed should be 200-250
3. Set your camera to use ISO 200.
4. Switch the flash on.
5. Use Continues-servo focus AF-C (That means that while you are followin the koi and the focus button is pressed the camera will continue to adjust its focus)
6. Set your AF Area Mode to 3D. (3D Tracking magically tracks the subject as it flies around the frame, due either to its own motion, or your recomposition)
7. Adjust your lens zoom to how close you want to be.
8. Find the koi in the bowl wherever it is, Focus lock the camera on the koi by keeping the shutter release button slighly pressed.
9. Follow the koi around until the desired pose is achieved and then press the shutter realse button full.

I think one can try and use the polorising lens when working in direct sunlight but not when already in a shaded area.

Im not sure what the terminology is on the cannon SLR's but i assume that the settings will be the same.

My response and comments would be ...

1. A polarising filter is really of no use unless it is a proper one that is two pieces that you rotate to get the best view. With a fish in a bowl and the fish not static you will have serious issues with this filter because at almost every slightest angle change the filter needs adjustment.

2. I am not so sure about going Shutter Priority ... that is the TV setting on a Canon ... because the Aperture would be "roaming" depending on the light and if that F value drops below 5.6 you are running the risk of having parts of your fish out of focus.

If I had to shoot bowled fish I would do the following ...

1. Set the camera to AV and dial F 5.6.
2. Set the ISO to 400.
3. Set the Focus system to AI Servo.
4. Set the camera to continuous shooting.
5. Set the focus point on the center.
6. Set your metering on evaluative metering.
5. Set the 17-85 lens to max zoom and then step away from the bowl so that I get the whole bowl in.

You want to stay away from the lower ranges of the lens due to the risk of distortion.

Now get your angle right and half-cock the shutter button ... you will hear the AI servos running the autofocus as the fish moves around but keep the center of the lens on the middle of the fish.

Once you get the red light locking the focus depress the shutter full and keep your fish in the frame. Shoot in short bursts of 4 to 6 frames.

I am confident that this would render a perfect shot of that fish in the bowl.

You can now crop your shot in post processing to get rid of the excess bowl.

PS ... Try Google's Picassa for managing your shots and do some post processing ... it is free and really powerful.

There is always different ways to get to the same result and Wayne's advice is good but I am more comfortable to rather go AV than TV.

Hi All, i dont want to hi-jack the Cannon thread, just wanted to show the results after using a combination of the settings Colyn gave us above and the "The Christie Van Zyl koi shoot method ". I used "A" on my Nikon which is Aperture priority instead of Shutter priority and i think the photo came out great. I took about 15 shots and this was actually shot number 1. One little thing that i will adjust for myself is the ISO level. The photo feels a little grainy, not much but i can see it. So i will use a lower level ISO like ISO 200. I personally love the blue gradient created by the shadow of the towl over the bowl. Theres a bit of reflection on the water in the lower right corner but i dont think its distracting one from the subject. Before i posted the photo, i took it into photoshop and adjusted the lighting and contrast and then i cropped the photo. Thanks Colyn, from now on ill use Aperture priority "A" instead of Shutter priority "S". With S the tail end of the koi tend do go out of focus.

I like your shot ... I think you should not worry about the noise in the water ... what is more important is capture the lustre on the fish. If you drop the ISO one stop your shutter will drop one step and then you may run into blur problems.

I tweaked your shot a bit just for the hell of it ... hope you don't mind.

No problem Colyn, that looks good aswell. I am very happy with this little camera of mine. It performs better than i could have ever imagined. The amount of detail that it captures is so much beter than my old fuji finepix S3000 mik en drik.

Its not always possible to photgraph under a roof, so thats when i use the method that i call the The Christie Van Zyl koi shoot method.

Are you willing to teach me more? Maybe under another topic you can explain how to do Post Processing on a photo.

Sure ... open a topic here in photography and we can play around a bit.

Post 3 shots in their natural state not higher than 800 pixels and then we can talk about it and do some PP with it.

Seems like you are using CS3 ... take a look under preferences and then File Handling ... I think "Ignore EXIF Tag" s ticked because your images has no Camera 1 EXIF Data.

Nope, i checked..its not ticked.

Ok, Colyn. I created the new topic.
https://koionline.forumotion.com/photography-f57/post-processing-t1573.htm

Bobby ... jy kan gerus hier kom kyk ... http://www.photoclub.co.za/forum/index.php

Dis a klein forum en nie so intimiderend soos baie ander fotografie forums nie ... ek sien hoe die mense groei daar.